All Over Albany

Great comments from this week

Of the hundreds of comments post this week on AOA, here are a few of the ones that made us think or laugh this week. Thanks to everyone who posted a comment this week!

On pets

"As a fellow animal lover who has rescued several animals and donated money to several groups, it angers me that almost 3 grand is being raised to save one cat. You know how many other perfectly healthy animals could be helped with that kind of money, especially given these tough economic times? This cat better be some sort of miracle cat with golden whiskers who can conduct symphonies with it's tail or something. Just sayin."

...said Pantaloons about the animal rescue trying to raise $2,700 for a cat's heart surgery.

"I have to say, the amount of money seems high for just one animal. And yes, they could use the money for many animals instead of just one.

But on the other hand, it will make a big difference to that one cat. Without that surgery, the cat won't live past a year.

I guess it is a question of whether we save one or many. Either way we are talking about having to choose which lives to save."

...said Pallagia about the situation. The story prompted a lot of interesting comments.

On the weather

"This came just in time for me to get out some recently accumulated aggression whacking away at the glacier that used to be my sidewalk. I still have a smile on my face!"

...said lucy about this week's thaw

On Dan Savage

"Oh. My. God. I love Dan Savage. LOVE HIM. I hope he has a question and answer session. Oh the things I am prepared to say outloud in a full auditorium that I wouldn't even say to my fiancee in the privacy of our bedroom without blushing."

...said Katherine about the sex columnist's appearance at UAlbany

"We need to talk."

...said Katherine's fiancee

On sprawl

"This looks exactly like Crossgates commons - except there is no snow. If you didn't tell where it was, we would have no idea. Sprawl is soulless."

...said biodiva about the photo from Virginia that accompanied a post about the closeout "deals" at Circuit City

On parking tickets

"Christ, as much as I love this city, I effing *hate* the APD. This is a police force that couldn't care less about murders, rapes, robberies, assault, etc, but GOD HELP YOU IF YOU PARK ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE STREET, OR YOUR ASS IS GRASS!! And, as your blood-pressure-spiking tale illustrates, even if there's a *perception* that you have violated the Laws Of The Albany Parking Gods, (yea, verily) you will be mocked and punished severely as your car is put into the stocks.

Bottom Line: Don't anger the Albany Parking Puritans. They make baby Jesus cry."

...said Kim about Jess' Kafkaesque parking ticket tale. That prompted a lot of people to share their own parking ticket horror stories, including this one...

"I had a similarly-horrible booting situation in November. My car was stolen two years ago (as part of a house robbery--the APD never dusted our house for prints, and an officer gave my roommate serious 'tude when she gave him the list of things that had been stolen from her. There was never ANY follow-up regarding the house robbery).

The cops recovered my car in a Central Ave. parking lot after it being missing for a week (they also did not dust the car for prints).

You can imagine my surprise, then, when I left my house to go to work one morning this past November to find it booted. Apparently, I'd been ticketed TWICE for illegally parking in the lot on Central before the cops wised up that they were, in fact, ticketing a stolen car.

I never received any notices from the Parking Violations Bureau because I'd moved after the home robbery, and the notices were never forwarded.

I ended up having to pay the $40 booting fee, but not the $250 for the two unpaid tickets, after showing the Parking Violations clerk the copy of the police report from the car theft. She actually rolled her eyes at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

I always try to support the cops--they have a really rough job, and they get very little respect in return. Unfortunately, nearly every time I've needed the cops for something, the response has been lazy, incompetant and downright dismissive. It's erroding my respect for the cops, and as I can see from all of the other comments here, I'm not the only one. "

...said Siobhan about her experience

On Liz Funk

"Liz Funk needs to come back in about 20 years and show us then what she has accomplished before she can wear the tag of super-anything. She is barely out of college. Funk is a perfect example of what happens as a result of the silly self-esteem movement in which her generation was saturated . Give a rest Darling. You are quite average and so are most of your comtemporaries. Sorry to break it to you."

...said Jimmy about the local college student who wrote a book called "SuperGirls Speak Out: Inside the Secret Crisis of Overachieving Girls."

"I know this girl. She's friends with my little brother. I had heard she got a book deal, I'm curious to read it. I know you can't tell from the video, but, I saw her at the peak of her anorexia and she could seriously hoola-hoop through a cheerio. She was wicked depressed, too. Why is everyone drinking the hateraid? She might actually have something interesting to share."

...said Arielle in response

On Craigslist

"I fully expected that link to be to a personals page with the title "Huge cock, Free to good home"

Needless to say I was mildly disappointed."

...said Slacker about a Craigslist item offering a free rooster

"I think I need to get a job at Chuck-E-Cheese."

...said Max about another Missed Connection in Chuck-E-Cheese